Killer Bob is not an accessible band. In fact, in front of a small but animated crowd of experimental music enthusiasts at Music House on Friday, it oftentimes felt like they specifically went out of their way not to be accessible. Their lead vocalist and guitarist, aptly named (you guessed it!) Bob, doesn’t sing so much as urgently repeat barely audible words into the microphone. Their music, which can fairly accurately be described as modern day Swans on meth, ranges from trance inducing to downright cacophonous, and sometimes makes the transition between the two in a matter of seconds.

The morning after their raucous show at Eclectic, Aural Wes's Chris Gortmaker headed to O'Rourke's Diner for brunch with the Harlem hip-hop group Ratking. Over a veritable mountain of brunch-foods, discussion ranged from Ratking's creative process to Pangaea and dinosaurs. A little known link between Aphex Twin and Cheef Keef emerged. Chris never got the toast he ordered...

It soars, shivers, and slides. It squeaks around the edges, wraps around you head, and winds itself up into you ears. Unrestrained in its innocence, it's joyous and intimate. So much so that it can surprise you at first. Steve Marion's guitar whispers and howls at the same time.

Marion's psychedelic, surfy, afrobeat-infused instrumental project Delicate Steve rose from his New Jersey bedroom to stages shared with acts like The Dirty Projectors and Sigur Ros.

Hailing from Washington state, Mount Eerie (the moniker for principal member Phil Elverum and accompanying member Carson Churchill) descended on Wesleyan’s Buddhist House on Sunday, September 21 for an intimate, stripped-down show attended by devoted fans and mere music aficionados alike. Elverum, who was previously frontman of the lo-fi Olympia-based group The Microphones, started Mount Eerie in September of 2003 after he believed his previous project to be completed.

Sophomore band Thatcher just dropped "For Today," the first track off of their eponymous debut EP. Thatcher (Jesse Cohen, Ryan Breen, Alex Lee, and Chris Gortmaker) played a sweaty guerrilla show in the Westco Triple on the last day of school and now return with this 5-track album, recorded in a hot-Boston-baked-bean basement. These post-punkers have an EP-release show on the 12th. In the meantime, hit up their Bandcamp and check out the new track.

Two reviews?! Why is this? Why not? Aural Wes presents two takes on The Japanese's new EP:

Wesleyan's super-senior/alumni alt-rock band The Japanese (Adrien DeFontaine ’13, Neo Sora ’14, and Dan Moakley ’13) released their Skyward EP last month, featuring three newly-penned songs and a more thoroughly-engineered sound throughout. Skyward is The Japanese's second EP, and was crowd-funded via a kickstarter campaign full of funny things.

Sweeping lo-fi sound waves, made from eerie drones reminiscent of human screams, make up the most recent release from Sophomore rapper Kai Leshne [kai OD]. The beat is remarkably dark and almost atonal with its smooth, ghostly vocals. This is one of the few tracks kai OD has leaked from his upcoming full length release titled Atlantis Campus. The vocals on "zooted" are more spoken than other on tracks, some of which are reminiscent of the Weeknd's House of Balloons. Each has its own unique flair, making this a Wes release to look out for. Stay tuned for Atlantis Campus coming in April.